DOCSLIB.ORG

The Cultural Legitimacy of the Federal Republic Assessing the German Kulturstaat

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Cultural Legitimacy of the Federal Republic Assessing the German Kulturstaat Harry & Helen Gray Humanities Program Series Volume 6 THE CULTURAL LEGITIMACY OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC ASSESSING THE GERMAN KULTURSTAAT Edited by Frank Trommler University of Pennsylvania American Institute for Contemporary German Studies The Johns Hopkins University Harry & Helen Gray Humanities Program Series Volume 6 THE CULTURAL LEGITIMACY OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC: ASSESSING THE GERMAN KULTURSTAAT Edited by Frank Trommler University of Pennsylvania The American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) is a center for advanced research, study and discussion on the politics, culture and society of the Federal Republic of Germany. Established in 1983 and affiliated with The Johns Hopkins University but governed by its own Board of Trustees, AICGS is a privately incorporated institute dedicated to independent, critical and comprehensive analysis and assessment of current German issues. Its goals are to help develop a new generation of American scholars with a thorough understanding of contemporary Germany, deepen American knowledge and understanding of current German developments, contribute to American policy analysis of problems relating to Germany, and promote interdisciplinary and comparative research on Germany. Executive Director: Jackson Janes Research Director: Carl Lankowski Board of Trustees, Cochair: Steven Muller Board of Trustees, Cochair: Harry J. Gray The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) alone. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies. ©1999 by the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies ISBN 0-941441-43-1 This Humanities Program Volume is made possible by the Harry & Helen Gray Humanities Program. Additional copies are available for $5.00 to cover postage and handling from the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, Suite 420, 1400 16th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036-2217. Telephone 202/332-9312, Fax 202/265- 9531, E-mail: [email protected], Web: http://www.aicgs.org. ii C O N T E N T S Foreword.................................................................................................v About the Authors....................................................................................ix INTRODUCTION Frank Trommler...................................................................................1 CULTURAL MEMORY AND THE MEMORY OF THE HOLOCAUST: HEUSS AND HIS SUCCESSORS Jeffrey Herf.........................................................................................11 THE STATE OF THE KULTURSTAAT: IDEAS, THESES AND FACTS FROM A GERMAN AND EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE Andreas Johannes Wiesand.................................................................25 HOW TO PRESENT GERMANY AS A KULTURSTAAT ABROAD Barthold Witte.....................................................................................47 THE AMERICAN VIEW: A COMMENT Charles Maier..................................................................................57 iii F O R E W O R D The remarkable ascent of the Federal Republic of Germany, whose fiftieth anniversary is being commemorated in 1999, is usually credited both to its successful democratization of the Germans and their strong economic recovery from the ruins of Hitler’s dictatorship. Cultural factors have received less attention, although the works of Günter Grass, Heinrich Böll, Joseph Beuys, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder have been celebrated abroad as proof of the country’s vibrant cultural life. In fact, the West German state, from its founding in 1949, has drawn much-needed credibility from its attachment to the traditions of German culture and the concept of the Kulturstaat. This concept, alien to American ideas about the role of government, obliges the state in terms of its public and moral representation, as well its active support for arts, education and culture. This volume, based on a Harry and Helen Gray Humanities Program workshop in Washington on March 27, 1998, is a first attempt on this side of the Atlantic to assess structure and reality of the German Kulturstaat since 1949, taking a critical look at the historical, political, legal, and administrative features of the cultural legitimacy of the Federal Republic. The workshop highlighted achievements and problems in a frank discussion of German and American experts even before the new German government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, as a result of the election of September 1998, installed a first State Minister of Cultural Affairs on the federal level. As the discussion about the role of public sponsorship in the sphere of culture intensifies with the waning ability of governments to honor the financial obligations of the welfare state, this volume widens the perspective beyond the immediate political debate. It conveys in its contributions the spirit of a critical exchange, preserving the spoken word as much as possible. The papers are the revised versions of the recorded and transcribed workshop talks. In his authoritative survey, “The State of the Kulturstaat,” Andreas Johannes Wiesand, director of the Zentrum für Kulturforschung in Bonn, includes the developments since the creation of the office of State Minister of Cultural Affairs, which was taken over by Michael Naumann in fall 1998. Barthold Witte, who held the position of under secretary of state for Cultural Affairs at the German Foreign Office from 1983 until his retirement in 1992, focuses on Germany’s cultural representation abroad which also has attracted much attention in recent years. For many foreign observers, this representation has been instrumental in shaping views of the cultural legitimacy of the Federal v Republic which cannot be ascertained without reflection of the cultural legacies of previous German governments, those of the Empire, the Weimar Republic and Hitler’s Third Reich. Jeffrey Herf, historian at Ohio University, illuminates how the first president of the Federal Republic, Theodor Heuss, made sure that these legacies were reflected and Hitler’s worst legacy, the persecution of the Jews, was remembered and addressed. In his comment, Charles Maier, historian at Harvard University, ponders a historical evaluation of the Kulturstaat concept and concludes with thoughts about phasing it out in the era of Europeanization and globalization. The workshop was part of a seminar series on German and American approaches to cultural politics and arts sponsoring which the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies began in 1995. After three conferences in Washington under the titles, “Cultural Politics and Policies in the United States and Germany: A Comparative Assessment and Agenda,” “Foreign Affairs and Cultural Policies: American and German Strategies,” and “New Approaches to Public and Private Funding of the Arts: The Local Agenda in the United States and Germany,” the Institute organized, together with the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft im Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie and the Kulturstiftung Sachsen, the conference, “New Forms of Arts Sponsorship in the United States and Germany,” which took place in Leipzig in May 1996. It featured a lively exchange between German and American experts concerning models of public-private partnerships as well as arguments for instituting better legal and tax provisions in Germany for individual and corporate sponsorship of the arts. Its proceedings were published in the Blaubuch des Aktionskreises Kultur (Bürger, Staat und Wirtschaft als Partner, 1997). All these discussions leave little doubt about fundamental differences in the public and governmental conceptions of arts sponsoring in the United States and Germany, and yet they also reveal increasingly common ground in working toward creative public- private partnerships. It is an area of growing importance where the Institute has become a contributor to the transatlantic exchange. Frank Trommler Carl Lankowski Chair, Harry & Helen Gray Research Director Humanities Program AICGS July 1999 vi A B O U T T H E A U T H O R S Jeffrey Herf, Professor of History, Department of History, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701. Charles Maier, Professor of History and Director, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University, 27 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Frank Trommler, Director, Humanities Program, AICGS, and Professor of German, Department of German, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305. Andreas Johannes Wiesand, Professor and Director, Zentrum für Kulturforschung, Am Hofgarten 17, D-53113, Bonn, Germany Barthold Witte, Editor, Liberal, Viktoriastrasse 6, D-53173 Bonn-Bad Godesberg, Germany vii INTRODUCTION Frank Trommler SUCCESS OF A CONCEPT When the victorious Allies, together with a small group of German politi- cians, launched the Federal Republic in 1949, they made sure that the new state was fully equipped to follow their lead in the realms of politics and the economy. Among the specifically German contributions to this process of renegotiating nationhood in a federal framework was the notion of the Kulturstaat which defines the state, in the century-old tradition of governmental and public spon- sorship of the arts, as an active agent in the realm of culture. Although there was no constitutional explanation of the concept itself, aside from the declara- tion that the responsibility for culture and education rested with the federal Länder or states, the traditional public responsibilities in this area were not only resumed but also expanded. Thanks to the first federal
Load more

Recommended publications
  • CRITICAL THEORY and AUTHORITARIAN POPULISM Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism
    CDSMS EDITED BY JEREMIAH MORELOCK CRITICAL THEORY AND AUTHORITARIAN POPULISM Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism edited by Jeremiah Morelock Critical, Digital and Social Media Studies Series Editor: Christian Fuchs The peer-reviewed book series edited by Christian Fuchs publishes books that critically study the role of the internet and digital and social media in society. Titles analyse how power structures, digital capitalism, ideology and social struggles shape and are shaped by digital and social media. They use and develop critical theory discussing the political relevance and implications of studied topics. The series is a theoretical forum for in- ternet and social media research for books using methods and theories that challenge digital positivism; it also seeks to explore digital media ethics grounded in critical social theories and philosophy. Editorial Board Thomas Allmer, Mark Andrejevic, Miriyam Aouragh, Charles Brown, Eran Fisher, Peter Goodwin, Jonathan Hardy, Kylie Jarrett, Anastasia Kavada, Maria Michalis, Stefania Milan, Vincent Mosco, Jack Qiu, Jernej Amon Prodnik, Marisol Sandoval, Se- bastian Sevignani, Pieter Verdegem Published Critical Theory of Communication: New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet Christian Fuchs https://doi.org/10.16997/book1 Knowledge in the Age of Digital Capitalism: An Introduction to Cognitive Materialism Mariano Zukerfeld https://doi.org/10.16997/book3 Politicizing Digital Space: Theory, the Internet, and Renewing Democracy Trevor Garrison Smith https://doi.org/10.16997/book5 Capital, State, Empire: The New American Way of Digital Warfare Scott Timcke https://doi.org/10.16997/book6 The Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism Edited by Marco Briziarelli and Emiliana Armano https://doi.org/10.16997/book11 The Big Data Agenda: Data Ethics and Critical Data Studies Annika Richterich https://doi.org/10.16997/book14 Social Capital Online: Alienation and Accumulation Kane X.
    [Show full text]
  • Joint Committee on the Handling of Security-Relevant Research Publishing Information
    October 2016 | Progress Report Joint Committee on the Handling of Security-Relevant Research Publishing information Published by Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina e. V. President: Prof. Jörg Hacker – German National Academy of Sciences – Jägerberg 1, 06108 Halle (Saale), Germany Editor Dr Johannes Fritsch, Yvonne Borchert German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Contact Office of the Joint Committee on the Handling of Security-Relevant Research German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Head: Dr Johannes Fritsch Reinhardtstraße 14, 10117 Berlin, Germany Tel.: +49 (0)30 2038 997-420 [email protected] www.leopoldina.org/de/ausschuss-dual-use Contact at the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) Dr Ingrid Ohlert German Research Foundation Kennedyallee 40, 53175 Bonn, Germany Tel.: +49 (0)228 885-2258 [email protected] www.dfg.de Design and setting unicom Werbeagentur GmbH, Berlin Recommended form of citation German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) (2016): “Joint Committee on the Handling of Security- Relevant Research”, progress report of 1 October 2016, Halle (Saale), 22 pages Joint Committee on the Handling of Security-Relevant Research Preface 3 Preface This progress report begins with a summary in Chapter A of the developments leading up to the establishment of the Joint Committee on the Handling of Security-Relevant Research by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Founda- tion) and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in November 2014. Chapter B reports on the tasks of the Joint Committee and its activities up to 1 Octo- ber 2016, with particular focus on the progress of implementing the DFG and the Leo- poldina’s “Recommendations for Handling Security-Relevant Research” of June 2014.
    [Show full text]
  • Book Reviews Jeffrey Herf, Undeclared Wars with Israel: East
    Book Reviews Jeffrey Herf, Undeclared Wars With Israel: East Germany and the West German Far Left, 1967–1989. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 493 pp. $29.99. Reviewed by Jeffrey Kopstein, University of California, Irvine In a fitting sequel to his book Divided Memory: The Nazi Past and the Two Germanys (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), Jeffrey Herf provides a mountain of evidence documenting how the Communist regime in the German Democratic Re- public (GDR) and the extreme-left opposition in West Germany supported Palestinian Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jcws/article-pdf/18/4/217/700114/jcws_r_00689.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 terrorists who murdered Jews both in Israel and in numerous other countries for more than two decades, from 1967 to 1989. If the 11th commandment of West German politics was to bolster the Jewish state or at least do no harm to Jews, the East German regime and the West German extreme left felt bound by no such strictures. The GDR provided weapons, training, medical care, vacation spots, and steady support in the United Nations (UN) for Israel’s enemies. The West German far left offered a steady drumbeat of propaganda about the evils of Zionism and occasionally backed up their rhetoric with violent acts against Jews. How did these Germans justify violence against Jews so soon after World War II? Herf points to a combination of Realpolitik and ideology. West Germany’s Hallstein Doctrine left East Germany isolated and desperate for diplomatic recognition. Once the Soviet Union threw its full weight behind the Arab side after 1967, the GDR (which alone among the Warsaw Pact states had never established diplomatic relations with Israel) became the most ardent backer of the radical rejectionist states: Syria, Iraq, Libya, and—until Anwar al-Sadat’s break with the USSR in 1972—Egypt.
    [Show full text]
  • Champion Brands to My Wife, Mercy the ‘Made in Germany’ Champion Brands Nation Branding, Innovation and World Export Leadership
    The ‘Made in Germany’ Champion Brands To my wife, Mercy The ‘Made in Germany’ Champion Brands Nation Branding, Innovation and World Export Leadership UGESH A. JOSEPH First published 2013 by Gower Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Ugesh A. Joseph 2013 Ugesh A. Joseph has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Gower Applied Business Research Our programme provides leaders, practitioners, scholars and researchers with thought provoking, cutting edge books that combine conceptual insights, interdisciplinary rigour and practical relevance in key areas of business and management. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Joseph, Ugesh A. The ‘Made in Germany’ champion brands: nation branding, innovation and world export leadership / by Ugesh A. Joseph. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4094-6646-8 (hardback: alk.
    [Show full text]
  • Jahresbericht 2020
    BaFin Jahresbericht der Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht 2020 Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht der Bundesanstaltfür Jahresbericht 2020 © Pixabay/antelope-canyon iStock-996573506_ooddysmile Jahresbericht 2020 der Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht Inhaltsverzeichnis Vorwort 11 Die BaFin in Kürze 12 Die BaFin als integrierte Aufsicht und Nationale Abwicklungsbehörde 13 1 Aufgaben 13 2 Ein Blick auf die zentralen Aufgaben 14 2.1 Die Bankenaufsicht 14 2.2 Die Versicherungsaufsicht 15 2.3 Die Wertpapieraufsicht 15 2.4 Kollektiver Verbraucherschutz 15 2.5 Gegen Geldwäsche und unerlaubte Geschäfte 16 2.6 Abwicklung 16 2.7 Die BaFin international 17 2.8 Innere Verwaltung und Recht 17 Zahlen im Überblick 18 I. Schlaglichter 22 1 COVID-19 23 1.1 BaFin passt Rahmenbedingungen in der Krise an 23 1.1.1 Bankenaufsicht 23 1.1.2 Versicherungs- und Pensionsfondsaufsicht 25 1.1.3 Wertpapieraufsicht 26 1.1.4 Geldwäschebekämpfung 27 1.1.5 Erlaubnispflicht 27 2 Wirecard 27 3 Brexit 29 4 Digitalisierung 30 5 Sustainable Finance 32 6 Niedrigzinsumfeld 32 6.1 Lage der Kreditinstitute 32 6.2 Lage der Versicherer und Pensionskassen 32 7 Geldwäscheprävention 33 8 Solvency-II-Review 34 9 Bessere Liquiditätssteuerung bei offenen Investmentvermögen 35 II. Die BaFin international 40 1 Deutsche EU-Ratspräsidentschaft 41 1.1 MiCA – Märkte für Kryptowerte 41 1.2 DORA – Digitale operationelle Resilienz des Finanzsektors 42 1.3 Europäische Kapitalmarktunion 42 2 Bilaterale und multilaterale Zusammenarbeit 43 3 Arbeiten der drei ESAs 46 3.1 EBA 46 3.2 EIOPA 46 3.3 ESMA 47 3.4 Nachhaltigkeitsbezogene Offenlegungspflichten 47 4 Arbeiten der globalen Standardsetzer 48 4.1 Basler Ausschuss zieht Schlussstrich 48 4.2 IAIS setzt neue Rahmenwerke um 48 4.3 IOSCO im Pandemiejahr 49 4.4 FSB untersuchte Folgen der Corona-Pandemie 49 III.
    [Show full text]
  • American Post-Conflict Educational Reform This Page Intentionally Left Blank American Post-Conflict Educational Reform from the Spanish-American War to Iraq
    American Post-Conflict Educational Reform This page intentionally left blank American Post-Conflict Educational Reform From the Spanish-American War to Iraq Edited by Noah W. Sobe AMERICAN POST-CONFLICT EDUCATIONAL REFORM Copyright © Noah W. Sobe, 2009. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-61592-2 All rights reserved. First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-37951-4 ISBN 978-0-230-10145-6 (eBook) DOI. 10.1057/9780230101456 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data American post-conflict educational reform : from the Spanish- American War to Iraq / edited by Noah W. Sobe. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Educational assistance, American. 2. Educational change. 3. Conflict management. I. Sobe, Noah W., 1971– LB2283.A47 2009 379.1Ј290973—dc22 2009014130 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: December 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS Part I Introduction One American Imperatives, Educational Reconstruction and the Post-Conflict Promise 3 Noah W.
    [Show full text]
  • Franz Blücher
    Das Porträt FRANZ BLÜCHIER Von Friedrich Henning Wie in vielen anderen Städten im heutigen Nordrhein-Westfalen entstand vor 50 Jahren auch in Essen wieder eine liberale demokratische Partei, wie sie dort vor 1933 in den Orts­ gruppen der Deutschen Volkspartei und der Deutschen Demokratischen Partei (seit 1930 Deutsche Staatspartei) bestanden hatte. Die ersten Neugründungsansätze gingen hier schon Pfingsten 1945 von dem damals 75jährigen Essener Rechtsanwalt Justizrat Dr. Niemeyer aus, der 1918 bereits zu den Griindungsmitgliedern der DDP in Essen gehört hatte. Zu dem Gründerkreis zählten neben Niemeyer der Verbandsgeschäftsführer Hans Wilhelm Beutler, der damals 33jährige Prokurist Hans Wolfgang Rubin und der damals 49jährige Direktor der Essener Nationalbank Pranz Blücher. 1 Blücher2 war am 24. März 1896 in Essen als Sohn eines Bergbauangestellten zur Welt ge­ kommen. In Essen hatte er 1915 den Besuch des humanistischen Gymnasiums mit dem Abi­ tur abgeschlossen und als Soldat und Reserveoffizier am Ersten Weltkrieg teilgenommen. Erst 1919 kehrte er aus französischer Kriegsgefangenschaft nach Essen zurück. Der Tod des Vaters hatte ihn zum Verzicht auf das Studium der Geschichte und Staatswissenschaft veran­ laßt, statt dessen absolvierte er eine kaufmännische Lehre und war schon 1921 in die kaufmännische Leitung eines Essener Industrieunternehmens aufgestiegen. Zusammen mit dem ihm freundschaftlich verbundenen Essener Reichstagsabgeordneten der DVP und frühe• ren Vorsitzenden des Deutschen Arbeiterbundes in Essen, Otto Adams, der sich 1945 eben­ falls dem o. a. Gründerkreis angeschlossen hatte, war Blücher in der Weimarer Republik Mit­ glied der Deutschen Volkspartei Gustav Stresemanns gewesen. Auf Wahlzetteln wurde Blücher später sehr gern als der "Stresemann der heutigen Zeit" bezeichnet. Beruflich hatte sich Blücher seit 1930 als Abteilungsleiter der Essener Gagfa AG, dann der Essener Hoch­ tiefbau AG sehr intensiv mit Fragen der Grundstückspolitik und des Reichsbürgschaftswe• sens befaßt und war daneben auch im Essener Arbeite1wohnstättenbau tätig gewesen.
    [Show full text]
  • Jürgen Habermas and the Third Reich Max Schiller Claremont Mckenna College
    Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2012 Jürgen Habermas and the Third Reich Max Schiller Claremont McKenna College Recommended Citation Schiller, Max, "Jürgen Habermas and the Third Reich" (2012). CMC Senior Theses. Paper 358. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/358 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Introduction The formation and subsequent actions of the Nazi government left a devastating and indelible impact on Europe and the world. In the midst of general technological and social progress that has occurred in Europe since the Enlightenment, the Nazis represent one of the greatest social regressions that has occurred in the modern world. Despite the development of a generally more humanitarian and socially progressive conditions in the western world over the past several hundred years, the Nazis instigated one of the most diabolic and genocidal programs known to man. And they did so using modern technologies in an expression of what historian Jeffrey Herf calls “reactionary modernism.” The idea, according to Herf is that, “Before and after the Nazi seizure of power, an important current within conservative and subsequently Nazi ideology was a reconciliation between the antimodernist, romantic, and irrantionalist ideas present in German nationalism and the most obvious manifestation of means ...modern technology.” 1 Nazi crimes were so extreme and barbaric precisely because they incorporated modern technologies into a process that violated modern ethical standards. Nazi crimes in the context of contemporary notions of ethics are almost inconceivable.
    [Show full text]
  • Hitler's American Model
    Hitler’s American Model The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law James Q. Whitman Princeton University Press Princeton and Oxford 1 Introduction This jurisprudence would suit us perfectly, with a single exception. Over there they have in mind, practically speaking, only coloreds and half-coloreds, which includes mestizos and mulattoes; but the Jews, who are also of interest to us, are not reckoned among the coloreds. —Roland Freisler, June 5, 1934 On June 5, 1934, about a year and a half after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of the Reich, the leading lawyers of Nazi Germany gathered at a meeting to plan what would become the Nuremberg Laws, the notorious anti-Jewish legislation of the Nazi race regime. The meeting was chaired by Franz Gürtner, the Reich Minister of Justice, and attended by officials who in the coming years would play central roles in the persecution of Germany’s Jews. Among those present was Bernhard Lösener, one of the principal draftsmen of the Nuremberg Laws; and the terrifying Roland Freisler, later President of the Nazi People’s Court and a man whose name has endured as a byword for twentieth-century judicial savagery. The meeting was an important one, and a stenographer was present to record a verbatim transcript, to be preserved by the ever-diligent Nazi bureaucracy as a record of a crucial moment in the creation of the new race regime. That transcript reveals the startling fact that is my point of departure in this study: the meeting involved detailed and lengthy discussions of the law of the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • Commander's Guide to German Society, Customs, and Protocol
    Headquarters Army in Europe United States Army, Europe, and Seventh Army Pamphlet 360-6* United States Army Installation Management Agency Europe Region Office Heidelberg, Germany 20 September 2005 Public Affairs Commanders Guide to German Society, Customs, and Protocol *This pamphlet supersedes USAREUR Pamphlet 360-6, 8 March 2000. For the CG, USAREUR/7A: E. PEARSON Colonel, GS Deputy Chief of Staff Official: GARY C. MILLER Regional Chief Information Officer - Europe Summary. This pamphlet should be used as a guide for commanders new to Germany. It provides basic information concerning German society and customs. Applicability. This pamphlet applies primarily to commanders serving their first tour in Germany. It also applies to public affairs officers and protocol officers. Forms. AE and higher-level forms are available through the Army in Europe Publishing System (AEPUBS). Records Management. Records created as a result of processes prescribed by this publication must be identified, maintained, and disposed of according to AR 25-400-2. Record titles and descriptions are available on the Army Records Information Management System website at https://www.arims.army.mil. Suggested Improvements. The proponent of this pamphlet is the Office of the Chief, Public Affairs, HQ USAREUR/7A (AEAPA-CI, DSN 370-6447). Users may suggest improvements to this pamphlet by sending DA Form 2028 to the Office of the Chief, Public Affairs, HQ USAREUR/7A (AEAPA-CI), Unit 29351, APO AE 09014-9351. Distribution. B (AEPUBS) (Germany only). 1 AE Pam 360-6 ● 20 Sep 05 CONTENTS Section I INTRODUCTION 1. Purpose 2. References 3. Explanation of Abbreviations 4. General Section II GETTING STARTED 5.
    [Show full text]
  • Heinrich Lübke (1894-1972)
    Das Porträt HEINRICH LÜBKE (1894-1972) Von Rudolf Morsey I. Die in wenigen Artikeln unseres Grundgesetzes 1 fixierten Rechte und Pflichten des Bundespräsidenten hat Theodor Heuss zu Beginn seiner Amtszeit 1949 als dürres "Paragra­ phengespinst" bezeichnet; es müsse mit Leben - in den Worten von Heuss: "mit einem Men­ schentum" - gefüllt werden. 2 Diese Aufgabe haben die bisherigen sechs Amtsinhaber auf unterschiedliche Art und Weise erfüllt. Jeder von ihnen setzte andere, eigene Akzente, aber nur einer war bestrebt, von vornherein die Grenzen dieses Amtes zu sprengen: Heinrich Lübke. Entsprechende Ansätze in dieser Richtung riefen damals wie später Kritiker auf den Plan , Publizisten und Wissenschaftler. Jeder Staatsrechtslehrer hat sich irgendwann einmal auch über Amt und Kompetenzen , über "Sinn" und Grenzen des Verfassungsorgans Bundespräsi• dent geäußert. Das geschah überwiegend im Sinne einer Tradierung jenes Hindenburg­ Komplexes, der die Schöpfer des Grundgesetzes begleitet hatte. Sie vermachten 1949 der Bundesrepublik Deutschland eine stumpfe und keine "stählerne Spitze". Ein Staatsrechtier allerdings schätzte die Einflußmöglichkeiten des Staatsoberhaupts anders ein: Denn diese - so diagnostizierte er 1970 - "beruhen nur zum geringsten Teil auf verfassungsrechtlichen Befugnissen und sind noch seltener verfassungsrechtlich sanktioniert. Häufig beruhen sie einfach auf der selbstverständlichen Autorität seines Amtes, die er, wenn die Bundesversammlung bei seiner Wahl gut beraten ist, durch die Autorität einer integren und allgemein
    [Show full text]
  • The Category of Violence in Modern Philosophy
    Anna Szklarska Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny w Krakowie ORCID: 0000–0003–4424–2143 DOI 10.24917/20838972.16.1 The Category of Violence in Modern Philosophy Introduction: on violence research In this article, the author tries to present an outline of positions with- in the framework of modern and contemporary discourse on violence in a philosophical perspective. Following the most important violence theorists1, the author analyses the role of violence in shaping of culture and civilisation and tries to answer the question: why do people use vio- lence? How is it somehow inscribed in our condition? However, it is possible to propose various ways of defining and un- derstanding violence, and not just because there are various forms of violence, and there is a dispute among the thinkers themselves wheth- er it is of rational (Hannah Arendt)2 or irrational (Max Weber, Konrad Lorenz)3 nature. Violence is often perceived as a tool for exercising pow- er, and even as a method of settling a dispute over values. Through the centuries, the question was raised: is there a justified violence (e.g. as in the view of George W. Friedrich Hegel and Georges Sorel where it constitutes the condition and driving force of progress, or on the ba- sis of political realism, where it is legitimised by its relationship with law) as opposed to the one which is deprived of arguments? It is also a question about threats and hopes that we associate with violence. After all, the consequences of violence towards men and the world around them are various: such as the moral effects resulting from acceptance or denying violence.
    [Show full text]